August
marks the start of the back-to-school season, and with it come dozens of
sales. But when it comes to laptops — one of the most coveted
back-to-school items — what sort of deals can you expect?

To
find out, we did a little research. We broke up the potential buying
options for laptops into mainstream, high-end, and budget categories.
With our help, you'll know what to look for when shopping for the perfect laptop for your student.

The 15" Mainstream LaptopFor a safe,
all-around option, a laptop with a 15" display and at least 4GB of RAM, a
500GB hard drive, and a Core i5 processor will serve your student well.
Such a system provides ample processing power for everything from basic
word processing to HD video streaming (for when your student is done
with classes, of course). So when's the best time buy in this category?

Last summer, July proved to be the best month to buy a laptop with
the above-mentioned configuration. August was the second best month with
the best deal coming in at $550. For the month of September (which is
still a factor in plenty of back-to-school sales), the best laptop deal
jumped by $50.

So far this summer, deals on 15" laptops have
plateaued at $569. While that may be higher than last summer's best
deal, it's important to note that it buys you more technical prowess
than last year's model. In particular, this year's $569 laptop includes a
faster Sandy Bridge–based Core i5 CPU, a noticeable improvement over
last year's first-generation Core i5.

If you don't care to have
the latest Intel Sandy Bridge processor, the best deals on 15" laptops
with last year's Core i5 CPU (not shown in graph) have come in at $509
and $450 for the months of June and July, respectively. So for the
greatest savings, you'll want to look at systems with the
first-generation Core i5. (Check the processor model; if it has three
digits after i5, like Core i5-520UM, then it's a first generation.)

The High-End Desktop Replacement

Now
that we've looked at mainstream laptops, it's time to focus on their
counterparts — high-end 17" systems. Spec-wise, we narrowed our 2010
search down to a 17" desktop replacement with at least 4GB of RAM, a
500GB hard drive, and a Core i7 processor. The Core i7 is Intel's
top-of-the-line flagship CPU. More powerful than the mainstream Core i5,
it can be found inside many of today's desktop replacements.